My Beloved Bodyguard aka The Bodyguard (我的特工爷爷) is a Hong Kong/Chinese movie released on 1 April 2016.
About
Ding Hu is retired and has dementia. A young girl, Li Chung Hua, hangs out with him to hide from her father and his connections to crime. They live on the China/Russian border and her life is threatened by crime lords. Ding Hu as her bodyguard with his surprising skills protects her.
Cast
Sammo Hung (洪金寶) as Ding Hu
Of course Sammo needs no introduction whose contribution to Asian film industry is astonishing. He was the director and main actor in this movie. Sammo hadn’t directed a movie since 1997.
Andy Lau (劉德華) as Li Zheng Jiu
Another very famous Hong Kong actor with a list of films longer than several arms. He was the producer and main actor in The Bodyguard. He is, lets say, about the same age as me and looking very good.
I noticed a guest appearance by Hu Jun ( 胡军) who played a policeman.
I understand that Jackie Chan was due to appear in this movie but due to various reasons couldn’t so Andy Lau stepped in.
Review
On the face of it the story seemed sound however it wasn’t executed very well. Maybe Sammo and Andy Lau took on too much, not sure, it didn’t flow well. At first the story didn’t move very fast, I can see where some watchers would turn off at that point, but it did speed up as it went along. From a fairly sleepy harmless beginning to a more violent shocking second half, like going from a cuddly Disney movie to a brutal action adventure.
From an acting perspective I didn’t think Sammo performed well in this and much of the film was better executed by the other actors.
There was quite a bit of humour, especially from the three seniors on the bench which I enjoyed. There were other parts of the film that made me laugh but I don’t think the scenes were purposely set up for this.
The locations were interesting and I assume it was partly filmed in China and Russia, but those two countries get on well to have made this happen.
Summary
I felt bad as I really wanted to enjoy this movie but will only give it a 3/5.
Where To Watch
I understand it used to be on Netflix but we saw it on Tubi.